Sprueche 4:1-7

1 Höret, Söhne, die Unterweisung des Vaters, und merket auf, um Verstand zu kennen!

2 Denn gute Lehre gebe ich euch: verlasset meine Belehrung nicht.

3 Denn ein Sohn bin ich meinem Vater gewesen, ein zarter und einziger vor meiner Mutter.

4 Und er lehrte mich und sprach zu mir: Dein Herz halte meine Worte fest; beobachte meine Gebote und lebe.

5 Erwirb Weisheit, erwirb Verstand; vergiß nicht und weiche nicht ab von den Reden meines Mundes.

6 Verlaß sie nicht, und sie wird dich behüten; liebe sie, und sie wird dich bewahren.

7 Der Weisheit Anfang ist: Erwirb Weisheit; und um alles, was du erworben hast, erwirb Verstand.

Sprueche 4:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 4

In this chapter Solomon advises to seek after wisdom, to avoid bad company, and to continue in the right paths of goodness and truth: he excites attention to what he had to say, from the relation he stood in to the persons addressed; from the nature of his instructions, which were good and profitable; and from his own example, in attending to those his parents gave him, Pr 4:1-4; He exhorts above all things to get wisdom, from the superior excellency of it, and from the preservation, promotion, and honour, to be had by it, Pr 4:5-9; and he further enforces big exhortations, from their being the means of a comfortable life, and of the prolongation of it, and of leading in a right way without straitness or stumbling, Pr 4:10-13. And then proceeds to caution against bad company, and going into a bad way of life; which is enforced from the mischief done by those that walk in it, and from the darkness of it, to which the path of the just is opposed, Pr 4:14-19. And the exhortation to attend to and observe his instructions, and keep them, is repeated, from the consideration of their being life and health to them, Pr 4:20-22; and that they might be preserved, and not departed from, direction's are given about ordering the heart, mouth, lips, eyes, and feet, Pr 4:23-27.